Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/289

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Diseases of the Spleen.—The connexion between disease of the spleen and ague is much better supported by the medical statistics of this district, than the connexion between the latter class of diseases and affections of the liver. While, as we have seen, hepatic cases are far from uncommon in the hundred of Penwith, it will be observed that not a single case of splenic disease is recorded in the Dispensary lists; and I may had, that I neither saw nor heard of any case of the kind during my residence there. By way of contrast to this fact, I may state that at Chichester, which is only in a very slight degree a malarious district, I meet with more than one case of enlarged spleen every year, among my Infirmary patients.

Bronchocele.—This is another disease of a strictly local character, although its causes, or the particular circumstances under which it occurs, are much more obscure than in the case of ague. I did not meet with a single case of it during my residence in Cornwall, and all my inquiries lead to the conclusion that it is of comparatively rare occurrence in the Landsend district. It appears that only seven cases were admitted at the Penzance Dispensary during a period of fourteen years; and none of the surgeons of the district had met with many cases in the course of their practice: all, however, had met with a few. Although, therefore, when compared with many districts in the kingdom, the Landsend presents a very small proportion of cases of bronchocele, still, I apprehend, there are many districts which exhibit even fewer. This seems to be the case with Plymouth and London; unless, indeed,